WILD DUCKS AND DUCK DECOYING 139 



The common mallard or wild duck, and the teal, 

 being resident breeding birds, are the first to become 

 noticeable in winter, and many thousands are annu- 

 ally taken in the few remaining decoys of this 

 country. The mallard is an exceedingly handsome 

 bird, and one of the largest of its kind. It is an early 

 breeder, and soon after the brown duck begins to 

 sit the male moults the whole of its flight feathers 

 So sudden and simultaneous is this process that for 

 six weeks in summer the usually handsome drake is 

 quite incapable of flight; and it is probable at this 

 period of its ground existence that the assumption 

 of the duck's plumage is such an aid to protection. 

 The mallard is not strictly a ground builder, as its 

 nest is sometimes at a considerable altitude, nests of 

 a rook and a hawk having been taken advantage of. 

 In such cases the young birds are probably brought 

 to the ground in the bill of the old one. To such an 

 extent did the mallard at one time breed among the 

 fens in this country, that it was customary before 

 the young could fly for a number of persons to engage 

 in what was termed a " driving of ducks," when as 

 many as one thousand eight hundred birds have been 

 taken. Although wild and wary under ordinary 

 circumstances, the mallard upon occasion has shown 

 remarkable tameness. In severe weather two 

 hundred birds have assembled upon a pond and 

 accepted oats at not more than an arm's-length from 



